


Phoenix in Flames

by Animasta



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 少女☆歌劇 レヴュー・スタァライト | Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight (Anime)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Gen, Meta, Post-Canon, Pre-Rebellion Story, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-06 01:30:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16378823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animasta/pseuds/Animasta
Summary: The stage isn't the only place where those with Shine fight to see who will come out on top. The stage isn't the only place where magic exists. The stage isn't the only place where teenage girls fight to impose their will on the universe.It's just the safest.





	1. The Beginning Of The End

**Author's Note:**

> Hi okay Revue Starlight was great. Like, real great. You should watch it if you haven't, because this is taking place after that show and is, by definition, MAD SPOILERY.
> 
> This is taking a lot of interpretations of various elements of the show that I've pretty much adopted wholesale from a youtuber named Nearly on Red, whose analysis of Revue Starlight made the show, which I already thought was great, into Something Very Special. If you could say this story was inspired by anything, you could say it was inspired by those videos primarily.
> 
> There are other inspirations, but those are... a little spoilery, really.

No. No. This couldn’t be happening again, this couldn’t be happening again, this couldn’t.

It’s dark. The moon shines bright overhead. The stars that can pierce through the pollution are beaming down on them.

Something broke. Oh. She… dropped it. The plate, she dropped the plate. The ceramic of the plate was spread out on the dull, grey ground in almost uniform chunks.

Five pieces. Only one is bigger than the others.

The plate, she dropped the plate. She dropped the plate.

There was nothing on it. She was… going to get seconds? Was that it?

“Nana-chan? Are you okay?”

The plate. It broke.

She didn’t break the plate. She put seconds on the plate. It was good. But how could she get seconds on a plate already broken?

“Banana-chan?”

Where was she? Looking up from the ground, she saw the familiar environs of a party. A celebration for their production of Starlight. All of the members of her class were there. Karen and Junna were closest, so they were the ones who spoke to her. Hikari was also there, sitting down on a far away bench. She wasn’t comprehending anything around her.

She was mouthing words. Soundlessly. Mahiru was with her, rubbing her shoulder.

This wasn’t their first production of Starlight. Hikari wasn’t there for that one. This was their second.

The 100th Seishou Spring Festival.

The second performance of Starlight.

Why… was she back here?

“Banana… please, talk to me.” Junna asks as she enters into her personal space, and hesitates for a brief second before wrapping her in a hug, “Please, it’s okay. we’re all okay.”

“I… We are?” Her voice seems so very far away. In both space AND time.

“Y-Yeah, Banana-chan!” She had only told Junna about her multiple pasts, of course, but both Karen and Hikari probably had some idea, “R-Right? Everything’s okay?” She didn’t seem too convinced of this fact.

The rest of them were beginning to notice her… oh. She was trembling. Oh, she was barely able to stand. Maya and Claudine were staring from their bench. Maya was sitting straight up, her hand still in Claudine’s hair. Claudine herself was resting on her legs, much like Kaoruko was known to do.

Mahiru was staring at them. Not Hikari, of course. Hikari was still quoting Starlight.

Kaoruko’s face was painted with an odd, comforting smile. Something she rarely used. Futaba herself was making her way over, dragging Kaoruko behind her.

She was sitting on the ground. Kneeling on the ground. She was kneeling on a piece of the plate, and it hurt. It hurt a lot. It was piercing her skin. It was blinding, dazzling, bright.

Dazzling. Dazzling. Dazzling.

“K-... Kirin…” She spoke the name aloud, and Junna, who was still holding her, let go slightly in shock. They rarely talked about what had happened to them in the duels, and definitely no mention of their lone audience member.

She stood up, wobbling slightly... but she was a Stage Girl. She had stronger legs than most.

“KIRIN!” She bellows, and blew past Karen to get into the campus. She had to talk to him. She had to see him. She had to crane her neck up to look directly into his eyes. She had to demand answers, to demand answers. To demand that he let her go free from this agonizing torment.

She can’t do this again. She was already broken. She’d been broken for years, the years that only she remembered. The only way forward was to look to the future. That’s what Karen taught her, and what Hikari taught her, and what Junna taught her.

But… if she can go back again… how can she trust in time? How can she trust in her senses? How can she trust that time will ever work the way it should, ever again? She has to know why this happened. It was only once. It was… only once. Perhaps it was a trick. Perhaps it was some sort of… time aftershock, or something. But if she couldn’t trust in something so basic as the natural order of time, how could she trust in anything ever again?

How could she live her life? How could she graduate? How could she go out into the world, chasing starring roles? How could she work at her screenwriting craft, slowly becoming confident in herself? How could she ask Junna to be her girlfriend, to share an apartment together? Knowing that one day… knowing that one day… it might be taken away from her.

And she wasn’t the only one who still had scars. The others hadn’t started chasing her, perhaps out of shock. But Hikari was the only one who hadn’t moved an inch. Hikari, who was barely holding herself together at the best of times. None of them, besides Karen, knew what she’d gone through, those 7 months she’d been gone. The only thing they knew was that something HAD happened, and while initially she seemed to have not suffered greatly, she couldn’t hide it forever.

How she endlessly quoted that horrible play. First, under her breath, and it was only when one of them lipread her that they realized what she was doing. And then, whispering it. Karen always had a look of… not guilt. She didn’t think it was guilt. But it was something she never saw on Karen, especially the Karen that so boldly changed in their second year. Even at her lowest, when she was almost cut from Starlight, she never saw such a horrible look on her face.

It was a look of utter grief.

Karen and Hikari were vacationing together. Or would vacation together. They were going to… England. Somewhere in England, at least. She assumed it was London at first, but Karen had vehemently denied that. Something happened in London, perhaps.

Perhaps it was the giraffe.

The door was open, and she found the halls brightly lit as she jogged her way towards the entrance to the underground stage.

Junna once asked what she thought of Seishou Music Academy. Whispered, as they sat together in her bed, late at night. When the darkness of the academy became too bright to handle alone.

She hates it. She’d rather never come back here again. She’d rather Tokyo Tower be dropped on the school than to ever have someone suffer what she did. But… she loves it too. This was where she found friends, REAL friends, for the first time in her life. It’s why she kept going, and going, and going. Because she was trying to protect them from the harshness of reality, of fate. Even at her most broken, she kept going, if only for them. She wouldn’t let them fall to despair.

Even if she had to bear it all, instead.

But now, they were supposed to be past that. That despair was gone. Or it would be, in time. With love, with therapy. Eventually, their second (and her 82nd) year at Seishou Music Academy would become a nostalgic memory. A joke, perhaps, they played on their co-stars who hadn’t gone to that school. It was only one school, after all, and they didn’t accept everyone. But people could fall through the cracks, or come to the stage later in life.

Perhaps it’d be Junna and Kaoruko, joking about how someone in the audience was a total giraffe. Or the way Futaba would look right at home, wielding a heavy axe. Karen would laugh when someone said the words ‘reborn’, and she’d talk about how she was reborn on the stage every day, the others not knowing she often meant that literally. How she’d never look comfortable with only one weapon.

But… If this was happening again, she needed answers. And there was only one place she could get them from.

…

She stood at the entrance to the underground stage. After the Revues, and more importantly after Karen rescued Hikari, the stage was blocked off by steel doors. She’d noticed it a few times herself, and some part of her wanted to check if Kirin was still down there, but now? Now, it looked as normal as it did before. Back before…

*Ki-riririririti*

The sound… it was coming from her phone, again. Her hand was trembling. With fear. Anxiety? As she opened the screen, it was something so familiar, and yet different. Kirin was there, his picture was swirling, but the English text on the screen wasn’t what was always there. It was something different this time.

“Grasping… the star…” Oh, “Grasping the Star means forgiveness for your sins.”

A quote from Starlight. Starlight, Starlight, Starlight.

Always Starlight.

Grasping the Star… is a miracle… of the Night.

“Banana!” Junna’s voice carries through the empty hallway, her quick steps echoing down, “Banana-chan! Wait for us!”

She was still in the alcove, but the elevator hadn’t moved yet, even after hitting the button. Was it not just her, this time? Would she not have to deal with the isolation alone? The despair? The gnawing, endless emptiness?

No… no, she didn’t want that either… She just wanted to live her life! Her life! She wanted to be free of this crazy stuff, and she wanted to be free to hang out with her friends, and to be Stage Girls together… She wants all of them to Shine, to shine brightly without the fear of that Shine being taken away… 

“Junna-chan… No, no, this can’t be happening again…” Her earlier strength just faded away as soon as Junna came into sight, and her legs collapsed, splaying out in front of the door, “Please, tell me I’m just hallucinating… that I haven’t been teleported back in time, yet again… That I didn’t get a text from Kirin…”

“...I figured as much.” Junna finally caught up, breathing slightly heavily, but her voice still rung with confidence, “We just got the texts too… Everyone that was in the auditions. They’re all on the way. Banana… please, don’t fall to despair. Don’t do this alone. We’ll figure this out together, okay?” She knelt on the ground behind her, and wrapped her in a strong embrace, “We’re Stage Girls, after all. How can anything stand up to our Shine?”

“Hahaha… I wonder.” She still feels anxious, concerned, she can still feel her mind dripping with dread… but Junna’s warmth is dulling it, somehow.

“I won’t ask you to tell me how far back you went… I feel like we should wait for every-”

“Banana-chan! Jun-Jun!” They heard Karen’s voice first, but the amount of footsteps echoing told them the rest of them were following just behind. Even Hikari, who looked… more focused, somehow, despite the situation. She wasn’t murmuring anything.

“Well, I suppose we should get this out of the wa-”

…

The elevator descended as soon as they all got inside the alcove and they saw the stage itself for the first time in many months. It was just as odd and otherworldly as it was back then, but the air felt different. It was… warm, somehow. Comforting. It wasn’t the competition atmosphere, so bright and blazing that you were afraid of catching fire, but more like sneaking under the covers after a long day.

They also saw Him.

They were shot out towards the audience, where the five of them watched Karen and Hikari face off against Claudine and Maya. They were all sat in the same row, perfectly placed, and she was the closest to Him. Kirin. He was… much the same as before. Except… didn’t he have a bow before? On his tail?

“Greetings, Stage Girls.” His deep voice and calm demeanor washed over them yet again, though this time it felt more appropriate to the situation. Still, that didn’t mean she was happy about all this, and the others were no doubt feeling the same things, “I’m sorry to see you again. Especially you two.” He turned his head and stared at the far end, where Karen and Hikari sat. Hikari was merely staring out into the dark, empty stage, but Karen was glaring at him.

“What’s the big idea, Kirin!? Why are we here again? Why is there another audition!?” She’d never heard Karen’s voice so full of venom before. Hikari was at the farthest end, and Karen was almost shielding her with her body. The others weren’t as angry as Karen, but none of them looked happy.

“This isn’t an audition.” He said, “In fact, after your second production of Starlight, I wasn’t planning on doing any auditions.”

Of course, they didn’t have… any… information on the strange talking animal, but how could they take him seriously? For all they knew, THAT was his sole purpose. To watch over these strange auditions.

“Ever? Anywhere?” Hikari was the one to say that, though she still stared at the stage. She wasn’t accusatory either. She had very little emotion in her voice at all.

“Anywhere. London, Tokyo, New York… There was no need for it. Your entire class shined so brightly.” He finished as though that were an explanation that made any sort of sense… though, perhaps in magic Giraffe crazy land, it did.

Junna wasn’t having any of it, though, and she could feel Junna’s face burn with anger as she huffs, “Why are we here then? Why did you… why did you tear Nana-chan back here? Why did you make her relive the torment of repeating days, yet again?”

“Oh? I did nothing of the sort. If you were taken from another time, Daiba Nana, I apologize for that. Sincerely. It was not my doing, but my associate isn’t here to apologize for herself.” He bowed his head for a brief second, and she almost felt… happy? That he was apologizing to her?

“Before I answer your questions… we have a performance to watch.” He turned to the stage, yet again, “It will answer many of your questions.” The light of the stage had darkened, and the only lights were those in the audience, though those had slightly dimmed as well.

They were, in reality, quite far away. Yet, when a single light illuminated the actress, she was very easy to see. Clear, even. They could see all the emotion on her face. Actually…

“Suzuki-Senpai!?” Maya gasped, and now she knew why the girl felt familiar. Akane Suzuki. She was the Top Star of the 97th class, and she had blown them all away with her performance in the 99th Seishou Festival. In fact, her Shine was so blinding it put some of them, the more insecure amongst them, into depression. How could they ever reach that kind of beauty? That kind of glory?

Knowing what she knows now, about the Revues… well, it made everything a little sad. A little less special.

She was beautiful, as usual, and her hair was long and black; no doubt died that way, as Tomoe was naturally blonde. She wore a hospital gown, and she was wearing glasses without frames, and she had a look of… determination, yes, but also despair.

A reckless determination.

The final, sputtering gasps of a runner close to her finish.

“My name is… Homura Akemi.” She shook her head, trying to restart her brain, “I… I almost forgot that. I don’t know how long it’s been, since I started my awful journey… I’ve long since forgotten everything I used to be. My birthday, my parents, my history… The amount of times I’ve gone back to this very moment. All of it isn’t important. Madoka will be saved. She… has to be…” The light fades, and she can’t help but raise her hand to her mouth in shock.

Junna glances at her, and slowly reaches out to hold her free hand. She starts to rub calming circles into her hand, to keep her centered.

…

The scene shifts, and the current stage is lit by the stage lights. It’s a classroom, something a little more modern than their academy. The fourth wall isn’t the back of the classroom, but on the side; the door is facing them. Oddly, the students seem to be shadows, and the only ones who aren’t incorporeal are three students they’ve already been introduced to, and the teacher.

Now that she remembers Suzuki, she also recognizes many of these actresses as well.

The pink haired one (known as Madoka Kaname in the play), Satsuki Adachi, was also from the 97th class, and played Suzuki’s co-star in their production. However, unlike most of those who came through this academy, she was quite happy playing second fiddle. In fact, it was likely she wasn’t involved in the Revues at all, or at least as a secondary figure, much like Karen was for most of her time loops. Obviously, if she was performing in front of Kirin, she had to have known about him before.

The one in blue hair, who was called Sayaka Miki in the play, was Chikako Saotome, and she was from… maybe the 95th class? They’d watched a few older Festivals as a sort of preparation for their 99th, and she was the Top Star of that year. She wasn’t a star out in the real world, however; she’d gotten out of the acting scene entirely, and was going to a well-renowned college in Marseille, according to Claudine. Perhaps she just wanted a degree before going into acting… or maybe she felt ashamed that she stole everyone’s Shine, and would rather never act again than use the Shine of her classmates.

The one with the green hair, the one who was playing Hitomi Shizuki, was… actually, she didn’t recognize her. She was a little older, so maybe someone from the 94th class?

Eventually, Homura walks in, as a transfer student, and Madoka almost shudders. Strangely, it’s reminiscent of the way Karen acted when Hikari joined their class; but according to the play, Madoka had never met Homura before. At least, in this timeline.

…

“You should become Magical Girls!”

What was going on? At some point, the girls had gone to a mall. At that point, all was vaguely familiar and normal, except for Homura and the strange dream that Madoka kept referencing. However, once they got there, strange events started happening. An actress (that she also didn’t recognize), dressed as some sort of white animal, was chased by Homura, who wielded a VERY realistic looking gun. Sayaka and Madoka had saved her.

After that, a new character, named Mami Tomoe, was introduced, and this one was more immediately familiar to all of them; Keiko Aitama, the Top Star of the 98th class. She was even taller than her, and she stole the show every time she was on stage. Except now, of course, considering who she was sharing the stage with.

At that time, the animal (now known as Kyubey) had thanked the girls for saving them, and told them that Mami was a Magical Girl, and the other two had potential to become them as well. The animal wasn’t familiar to her, as it seemed to be taking inspiration from many different earthly animals, but it instantly brought Kirin to mind. Yet, despite that fact, there was a… discordant quality to Kyubey’s voice. It was truthful, yet deceptive.

It was emotionless, but caused intense emotion.

At least for her.

Taking a look at the other girls, she saw a few of them have suspicion in their eyes. Karen and Junna, definitely, and Maya was looking noticeably worried as well. Junna definitely remembered what Kirin said at the beginning of the play. About how it would answer questions. She’d already had one answered. Well, possibly. This… Homura character, had been the one to shift back in time. To save this Madoka. But was it some sort of allegory? Or was it real?

And if… if it was real, what did that say about the world outside their own little bubble?

…

The group of Magical Girls stood in a semi-circle, staring at the oncoming beast. If they hadn’t been prepared for things to get… unrealistic before, her mind wouldn’t have been able to handle this.

This was Walpurgisnacht. The Witch the play spent so much time building up. The stage was… unreal. It was a city street, a misty city street. There were cars, actual cars, on stage, clearly abandoned by fearful citizens. Walpurgisnacht was… incorporeal, yes, but so  _ real. _ It was horrifying. It was disgusting. It was despair, made flesh.

“Walpurgisnacht. The Witch of Helplessness. If we can’t beat her here, thousands of innocent people will die. Please. For them, for us. For Madoka. Let the sky above Mitakihara become black with her remains.” Homura said, at the top of the circle. It was all of the Magical Girls, sans Madoka, who was hiding off-screen somewhere. Homura had gotten through to Sayaka, she had saved Mami from certain death, and she had befriended the new girl, one named Kyouko (played by the lead of the 96th class, Hiyoko Tsumiki). All of them had the weapons of Stage Girls, and all of them were ready to face against the beast.

Yet…

The stage became dark once more. Those actresses, those Magical Stage Girls, were still waiting for Walpurgisnacht, in darkness. But Madoka, lowly, powerless, friendly Madoka, stood on the very top of the stage, trembling in her school girl uniform.

“ _ The play stops on Walpurgisnacht, _ ” Her face was stricken with grief, and longing, “ _ and the earth does not turn even once more. The story will not change. Tomorrow, and the day after, is the night of Walpurgis. _ ” The quote finishes, and her eyes are filled with tears, tears so real and emotional that she wants to hug this girl and tell her everything will be alright, “Walpurgisnacht is The End. Her brilliance, her cruelty, will never be surpassed. She is a swirling mass of destruction and death and devastation. She will last, and last, and last, until all that is left of Homura Akemi is a single lily, flowering in a desolate landscape of pink sand.” At that, she can hear Hikari gasp.

“So I, Kaname Madoka, ask this of you, Class of 99. I have one single request.” Madoka stares directly at each and every one of them.

“Please, fight for… Fight for them all. For Kyouko, who only wished to help her father. For Sayaka, who only wanted to hear Ave Maria one last time. For Mami, who only wanted to live, surrounded by people who loved her. For Homura, who would let herself erode into nothingness, to save the life of a single girl. Fight for the Witches, who were tricked into becoming little more than batteries. Fight for the citizens of Mi… no. Fight for the citizens of Earth themselves, to protect against this alien invasion. But most importantly…”

“Fight for the Laws of the Universe. Let our poor, brilliant Universe die peacefully.”

None of them can speak. All of them are crying, or frightened, or… disbelieving. They want to tell Kirin that it’s not real. Everything on this stage was a play, and nothing more than that. But… they know otherwise. She knows otherwise. It’s foolish to believe otherwise. This… thing, this… awful, awful play, is happening, in real life.

She’s the only one who knows that, for a fact.

“...The storm.” She was the first one to break the silence, “The storm… meteorologists couldn’t explain it. Not even in the context of climate change. Nothing about the storm made sense. They couldn’t even use any of the normal words, like a hurricane or a typhoon, to describe it. At the end of April, a storm was suddenly forecast, out of the blue, near the town of Mi...takihara.” She stutters, “They spoke as if it was the deadliest storm Japan had faced in generations. We were… still on Spring Break, and Junna-chan spent a lot of time worrying about it.”

Everyone was silent at her proclamation. Or maybe it was the end of the play, still. It’s only once the stage lights come back on, which shows how quickly the stage disappeared, that someone speaks aloud.

“...My extended family lives in Mitakihara.” Maya says quietly, staring at her hands. They aren’t shaking, which only speaks to Maya’s extreme control of her body, but her face… it tells them all they need to know.

Claudine grabs her by the arm, at first, but decides to just… hold her head in her arms, instead. Once her face was hidden inside the mess of hair, her body began shaking. Claudine was whispering something in French. Repeating words of comfort, or love, or hope.

Kaoruko, by contrast, looks ready to bolt. Her legs are tapping, wildly, and she’s holding Futaba’s arm more as a crutch than anything else. Futaba is trying her best to keep cool for both of them, but it’s not working too well.

Karen is… determined. She’s holding both Mahiru and Hikari close to her, and she doesn’t show any fear. Whether she actually had zero fear about the situation, or was merely pretending to so that Mahiru and Hikari wouldn’t be more worried, she couldn’t guess.

Junna, meanwhile, is staring at her. She doesn’t know what she looks like, but Junna… Junna looks determined as well.

“...So this is real.” Junna states.

“Indeed.” Kirin answers, after staying silent for so long.

“If you catch a small star, you’ve obtained a small piece of happiness.” Hikari repeats, though her voice is muffled from being too near Karen’s face, “If you catch a large star, you’ve obtained a large fortune. If you’ve caught both of them, you’ve caught an eternal wish.”

“We… I have brought you here to…” Kirin stops, and turns to them, “I have brought you here to… help save these girls. Your class… I have yet to see a class of Stage Girls with so much Shine before. I would not have accepted this offer if I did not believe you could do it. But… I will not force you to do anything, nor can I. My official association with your class, and indeed the Seishou Music Academy, has already come to an end. If you truly do not wish to help… I understand. I will not hold it against you, nor will my associate.”

“Will it be… dangerous?” Futaba asks, still grasping Kaoruko’s arm tightly. Way too tightly, as Kaoruko looks to be in pain.

“Yes. The life of a Magical Girl is as short and as blinding as a firefly, and though you will be safe from Kyubey and the dangers of Soul Gems, don’t mistake that for safety. You will, most likely, be fighting for your life.”

“...Will… your associate… ever send us back? If we fail in our mission, or if one of us…” She doesn’t know what she wants to happen. She’d rather die than go back in time yet again, but she’d rather die herself then let her friends stay dead… She’d take on that despair, again and again, to save her friends…

…

“No. This will be the one and only attempt. Even if one of you… dies.” Despite his usual… toneless demeanor (she used to call it emotionless, until she heard the actress portraying Kyubey), he sounded incredibly sad. None of them knew anything about him, at all, but… maybe he wasn’t such a bad… talking Giraffe.

“Homura Akemi… Madoka Kaname… all of these people really exist?” Claudine asks, concerned, “All of these girls…”

“There are hundreds of Magical Girls throughout the world, many in Japan.” He answers instead, “All contracted by the being known as Kyubey. And yes, the Stage Girls in this play were portraying real, live, breathing, people.”

“Why would you… care?” Junna asks, with a slight hint of anger, “I’m sorry, but… we don’t know much, if anything, about you. I have a hard time taking your word for… anything, really.”

“...I understand. You find me inscrutable. Because I don’t have a face that you can see emotion on, nor can you detect my feelings from my tone, you have a hard time believing in my sincerity.” He says, “But Stage Girls aren’t the only ones with Shine, and I find the way Kyubey harvests that Shine… detestable. Despite your negative feelings about the idea of the auditions, I’ve never stolen anyone’s Shine. I just… wanted to see it shine.”

“Are you an alien too?!” Karen asks, now just holding Hikari, “Or can all Giraffes talk!?”

“No.”

“Wait, no to the first, or…”

“Now, you have until the end of this weekend. And I require you all to agree. To have but one, or two, or even eight of you… would be as good as having none. If you agree, then you merely have to open the app on your phone and choose yes. Hopefully, we will see each other again. But if not…”

“Farewell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really looking forward to writing the rest of this :) I have everything up to a certain point written & plotted out, and I have the end plotted out, but a lot of the middle is still unknown to me. Though I guess that's just true of fiction in general, huh?


	2. To Die Among Strangers

Karen… did not sleep well. She tossed and turned all night, her mind alight with ideas about what was going on. She also stared at the Kirin app for far too long. She knows that if she were the only one to have to decide, she’d have hit it immediately. The pain, the isolation, it pierced through her heart. But they all had to say yes, and she didn’t want to make her choice without talking to the rest of them.

Especially Hikari, and Mahiru.

She was also not the only one to not sleep well. Hikari did, but that was merely due to the sleep medication she used from time to time. Karen almost asked for some herself, but she didn’t want to get addicted or anything. That could happen with that stuff, right? But in the dorm kitchen, the rest of them were all showing signs of poor sleep. Futaba looked as tired as Kaoruko usually did. Junna was having trouble keeping her eyes open, and Maya...

Maya looked… unperfect.

Ugh… that’s how you know things are serious...

Hikari was still sleeping, but the rest of them were up. Banana and Mahiru were working on breakfast, and the others were silently sitting on the various couches, tables and chairs around the dining room. All of them had things they wanted to talk about, but none of them were actually willing to talk.

Usually this would be where she would say something to break the ice, but she wasn’t sure what to say either. If what Kirin said was true, things would be really dangerous. Extremely dangerous. And it was one thing to fight each other with actual swords, but it’s another to actually fight against things wielding magic and guns. Like, the difference between a fencing duel and a fight to the death, maybe?

Karen felt that fear once, in real life. When she was knocked off the stage by Hikari, in the Revue of Tragedy, she could feel her body rushing towards the water, coming ever closer. She was a little surprised at how fast her mind was working; trying to figure out the best way to splash into the water without belly flopping, trying to figure out what Hikari was doing, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, all while falling all of… what, 6 seconds?

To face that danger knowingly, and to face it on behalf of someone else… that was something a soldier would do. They weren’t… soldiers. They were Stage Girls. The reason they came together, the reason they became friends, was because they all shared a common goal.

But could they be soldiers? Could they potentially sacrifice themselves to protect people they didn’t know?

She knows she could. She was the one who arrogantly decided that they would all perform Starlight together. All 9 of them, despite the fact that Starlight was a 8 person performance. She fought for her friends, all for a simple performance… if she had the opportunity, and had the ability, how could she not fight for these girls? But she didn’t know if the others felt that way.

Because… No one was talking.

“Non non!” Karen slaps her hands down at the table and everyone turns to stare at her, “We shouldn’t stew like this! We have things to talk about, and we need to discuss them with everybody!”

“Well said, Karen-chan.” Nana smiled at her, as her two spatulas hung from her hands, “And what better time to discuss something heavy than over pancakes? They’re ready, everyone!”

Some of them were a little hesitant, but the rest of them quickly made their way over to get their pancakes, and their toppings. Having five people in the kitchen at once was more than a little crowded, but it was kinda nice. By now, they were so used to each other that maneuvering around each other was something they did automatically.

As she got her pancakes and sat down, she glanced at Mahiru, who had just sat down herself. She was… looking pretty worried, but… she looked resolute as well. Though perhaps that was just her staring at her pancakes… They did look really good… Super fluffy, slathered in butter and maple syrup...

“Yes, I did want to discuss some things I found.” Junna said, drowsily, from one end of the couch, “I… well, I couldn’t sleep. At all. Had too much to think about… So I came out here instead, to do some research on my laptop.” She raised the laptop above the couch with shaky arms, before quickly putting it back down before she dropped it.

“Junna-chan! I knew you weren’t in your bed.” Banana pouted, but she didn’t look sad, “You could’ve woken me up, I would’ve loved to help. Plus, I miss you when you’re not in the room…”

Despite the tension, when Junna blushed fairly brightly, Kaoruko giggled at the innuendo, and a bunch of them smiled at that too. Banana was better than Hikari for sure, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t also dealing with post-audition… bad feelings, so to see her act so normally, to flirt so openly, was a relief.

“W-Well, anyway, I searched some of the names from the play.” Junna adjusted her glasses, “I found most of them; the only one I couldn’t find anything on was Sayaka Miki, but for the rest of them I only found vaguely related news stories.” She pulled up her laptop and started typing, “Sending the link to the first article in group chat.”

Pulling out her phone, Karen pulled up the link that pointed to a slightly old newspage, from the Mitakihara Daily Gazette, about a traffic accident that was pretty horrific. None of the family survived, except one… Mami. She… there was a picture taken, and she didn’t look hurt. Physically, anyway. But more importantly…

“A part of me hoped it was all… allegory, at most.” Maya sighed from the other end of the couch, “Kirin obviously told us the people in the play were real, but that didn’t mean the circumstances of the play were real. That in reality, things weren’t so dire. But to find out all of that was actually real, how…  _ triste. _ ”

Claudine blushed, so that was no doubt French, but she nodded as well. Most of them, even the ones who couldn’t help but fully believe, were still a little shocked. How could they not be? This was evidence that there was magic out in the world. Not just, uh… ‘Shine’, whatever that meant, but actual magic. or was Shine just Magic?

Plus, Mami… poor Mami. So alone. Fighting for her life, for the lives of everyone in her city, and no one knows anything about it.

What a supremely lonely existence.

A second article was posted in the group chat, this one even more horrifying; a story in the Kazumino Chronicle, this one (seemingly) front page news. An incident involving a newly popular preacher, and what the police were calling a severe mental breakdown. The man killed his entire family, and then hung himself. Except… his daughter, Kyoko, who was gone at the time. And then an addendum at the end, that proclaimed she went missing immediately after.

“She… She tried to help him, didn’t she? How could someone do that to their family?” Futaba whispers, “I… I don’t like my folks that much, but…”

“Futaba-han… I hope we don’t have to ever find out.” Kaoruko looks solemn, “Did he kill them all, except Kyoko, on purpose? Did he want his own daughter to live in her own personal hell for what she did to him?”

That… was definitely not a thing would ever think about. Ever again.

God, some part of her really wanted to hug her mom right now.

“I would never condone what he did to his family, but… the idea of people never disagreeing with me, through magic or some other force… well, some part of me wonders if I would ever be able to go outside again. Perhaps I would become a N.E.E.T.” Maya says, somewhat seriously, though the serious of the statement is a little… well, imagining Tendou Maya as a N.E.E.T…

Though, if Maya tried, she’d be the best dang N.E.E.T. in the country.

“Yeah…” Mahiru says, nervously tapping her fingers on the table, “But it wasn’t Kyoko’s fault either. She really just wanted to help! She… didn’t know how things would end up.”

“True, which is what makes this situation horribly sad.” Maya leans back into Claudine, and Claudine collapses back into the corner of the couch, her face torn between smiling and grimacing, “Kyubey manipulated a girl who didn’t know any better into making a life-altering decision, and I doubt she’s the only one with a wish that went bad.”

“I didn’t find anything on Madoka herself, but her mother was easy to find.” Junna nods, “She works for a pretty big company in the city. Kyousuke Kamijou was also easy to find, though the news definitely dried up when they learned he could never play the violin again.”

“ _ prévisible _ .” Claudine mutters into Maya’s hair, “Unless you’re a personality, the moment your talent is taken away, you basically become invisible.”

“You would never become invisible, Claudine. You’re far too beautiful to ever be invisible.” Maya says with her eyes closed, smiling, “Plus, your tsundere personality would make you very popular.”

Claudine wants to respond, but instead she begins to dig her face into Maya’s hair a little more, probably to avoid digging herself even deeper.

“Homura… well, I haven’t found her yet. If I wanted to, perhaps I could learn how to hack into the hospital database if I needed to, given enough time… but I think we have enough information to verify most of the play. At least, the characters involved.” Junna yawns, “Though since we don’t really know anything, it’s entirely possible that they made the whole magic thing up as a joke.”

“Kirin-han doesn’t have a humorous bone in his body.” Kaoruko huffs, “Despite his clear advantage in that area.”

“...Do giraffes have more bones than humans?” A voice asks, sleepily, from behind her, and she turns around to see Hikari slowly walking up to them, “Pancakes? Is there-”

“Like I’d ever forget you, Hikari-chan.” Banana says, somewhat awkwardly from her seat at the table, “We were just discussing everything we heard from Kirin.”

“Got it.” Hikari nods, and lazily ventures over to the kitchen, “What did we decide on?”

“N-Nothin yeth.” Mahiru says, her mouth full of pancake.

“Perhaps we should take some time, alone, to think about it?” Maya offers, “This needs to be a decision made by all of us, but it’s entirely possible that someone may feel obligated to join if they hear that all of us are ready to risk our lives for these girls, whom… we don’t actually know. We need to come to these decisions on our own.”

Maya doesn’t look at anyone in particular, but Karen can’t help herself and glances at Mahiru. She’s still focused on eating, of course, and Hikari is right next to her, and… Maya is totally right. Someone like Mahiru, or Kaoruko, or even Junna, would it be right to bully them into joining in? Well, maybe not bully. Eh… manipulate?

Everyone has things that are important to them, and everyone has limits. It’s okay that they may not feel okay with risking their lives for something like this, despite her own desperate wish that they do.

And just like that, breakfast descends into contemplative silence.

\------

“Futaba-han… What do you think Kyubey looks like, in real life?” She asks, staring up at the dense foliage of the trees. The sun is barely able to peek through the leaves and branches, and certainly not over by their area. Though they were getting some funny looks, most likely about being out on an early Saturday afternoon. Not all schools in Japan had Saturday classes!

Plus, it wasn’t like they actually  _ did  _ anything, post Festival.

“Eh… Hmm... probably pretty cute, I’d say.” Futaba leans back on their blanket, to stare at the trees with her, “If he recruits girls that young, he probably wants to look as cute as possible, right? To put them at ease, or something like that.”

“Something that looks cute, but is secretly evil? Sounds like a certain someone… That’s currently staring… at some trees…” She giggles, “Poor me, all alone with someone so evil… Hopefully the fairies of the park protect me...”

“Eh… You’re not evil, Kaoruko.” Futaba says, completely seriously, “You’re just… blunt.”

“...and rude, and a troublemaker, and lazy…” She ticks off with her fingers, “Futaba-han, you take me so seriously sometimes. You know I’m only joking.” Well, mostly.

Futaba says nothing to that at first, but merely reaches her hand towards the trees as she says, “Do you wanna know something I’ve never told you before? Something I hid from you, from everyone, my entire life?”

“...Dear, everyone knows you’re gay.” She rolls her eyes. Really? Coming out now? She was far too late for that.

“Eh!? I mean, no, not that!” Futaba blushes, “I… I always loved Sailor Moon. Even now, as someone who’s so close to adulthood, I still love that show. All of the characters, the themes, the way that good always triumphs over evil, despite the odds… Maybe it’s the most childish part of me, but.”

“Oooh, should I be calling you Tenoh-han?” She turns to face Futaba and touches her face gently, “I am pretty graceful and magnificent, so I guess I can be your Sailor Neptune. But… if you were trying to hide that from me, you probably shouldn’t have bought the motorcycle.” 

...Now she kinda wonders what Futaba would look like as a blonde… ooooh...

“...Probably.” Futaba’s face is almost burning from her blush, “But it was just a TV show, you know? I didn’t believe in magic or anything. I mean, I didn’t disbelieve, but I never saw it myself, so at some point I felt it was childish to believe in it. And then… well, Kirin showed up.”

“He kept referencing the ‘magic of the stage’, but I don’t know any stage that can do the things he did in the Revues.” Even if most of the effects were things that could theoretically happen, there was no way he had the money, time, OR resources for any of it. Unless he was some sort of… talking giraffe billionaire?

“So, uh… what do you think. About, you know…” Futaba mutters quietly, “...Going to Mitakihara?”

What does she think? Kaoruko spent the entire night thinking. Her mind was fit to burst with all of the things she’d been thinking about. She was much like Futaba. Not that she didn’t believe in magic, but since she hadn’t seen any before, why bother thinking about it? She was too busy with real life. But this whole Magical Girl situation… the stakes are so much higher than they were for all of them. As she understood it, at worst, her ‘Shine’ would disappear. What that meant was, well, a little vague, but it was mostly likely about talent. So her ‘talent’ would be gone, and she’d just be a normal girl who used to be a brilliant performer.

She wasn’t in danger of  _ DYING. _

Well, bar a freak elevator accident. Or being eaten by a talking giraffe. But that was just true of life, right? Wait, did giraffes eat meat?

But really, what were the differences between her and, say, Sayaka Miki? Was it purely by chance? Could all of them have become Magical Girls if things had been different? What would happen if Kyubey, knowing that Futaba was working as hard as she could to follow her to Seisho Music Academy, saw that desire and offered her a wish to become one of these Magical Girls?

…

And if Futaba had become a Magical Girl… she’d become one too. To save her, to protect her, to fight alongside her. She’d complain, she’d stew, and she’d whine, but when push came to shove, she’d be right there with her naginata. How could she not be? Futaba was the most important person in her life, and she’d do anything to protect her. Just like Futaba would do for her.

And Homura is doing the same for Madoka. For love...

“Do I want to? Absolutely not.” She sits up, staring at the Yoyogi Park lake, frowning deeply, “My life goals did not ever include becoming a Warrior for Love and Justice. But I feel like I have to. We all have to. Karen fought so hard to change Starlight. She rewrote what was once a tragedy, and turned it into a story with a happy ending. That’s what Homura is trying to do too… but she can’t do it alone. I really do want to help.” She knows that she comes off as uncaring at times, and mean at others… but she teases people because she loves them, and she truly loves her friends at Seisho. Just like Madoka loves all of her friends… Just like Homura once loved all of her friends, before that too faded away.

Futaba sighs in relief and sits up as well, “I didn’t want to say anything one way or the other, because it would be… unfair of me to influence you, but…”

“Futaba-han? Maya didn’t mean those of us who are couples. It’s only proper to ask your partner how you feel, right? Right?” As she expected, Futaba’s head shifted away, and her adorable blush lit her face beautifully. For as cool as Futaba was, she was but putty in her hands. Some of her favorite moments with Futaba were the times she broke that cool demeanor so thoroughly, so that she acted the blushing damsel in distress.

Speaking of…

“Though, if we are going to potentially throw down our lives for someone we barely know, there’s something I want to do first.” Pulling out her phone from under the blanket, Kaoruko starts searching through her address book before hitting a certain number.

“Well, more specifically, I want you to do something; tell my parents that we’re dating.” She grins as she holds her phone to Futaba’s ear, who proceeded to sit up so hard she was sure she’d keep going until she hit her nose on the grass.

“Bweh?!”

“Was that a word?” As soon as Futaba grabbed the phone, she twisted over her body to give her a tiny peck on the cheek, “I’m sorry, but as the heiress to the Hanayagi Clan, there are rules and regulations that must be adhered to, and you have done none of them. Why, I fear I’m causing my beloved ancestors to spin in their graves, for the lack of propriety that you and I have been showing.” She fans back down on the grass, hand resting on top of her forehead.

“What do yo- Oh, hello Hanayagi-san!” Ah, she loves to hear her beloved Futaba-han’s voice crack, and so nervously too!

She may not be Evil… but that doesn’t mean she has to play fair.

\------

*BANG*

“W-Waaah!” Despite all of her protective gear, as soon as the first ball shot out of the machine, Mahiru ducked out of the way of the ball, and Hikari couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe because it was so different to how she acted during the Revues, how confident she was when she swung her mace, but the sheer terror in her face as she ducked and twisted around was pretty entertaining.

Though they did start the machine at a pretty high speed… maybe she should fix that? Well, Mahiru could do that if she wanted.

Mahiru was clearly torn with wanting to scold Hikari for laughing at her, and happy that she was laughing at all. Deciding to just focus up and prepare for the next ball, she shuffled her feet into the ground and stared directly down the pitching machine, eyeing it as though it had offended her in some way. 

Eyeing it as though it were the bandit that had attacked Claire and ruined her memories...

(Stop)

She was a little surprised Karen had ducked out from the trip, to be honest. She would’ve thought Karen would love to watch Mahiru try her hand at a batting cage. Though maybe it wasn’t that shocking. There were two people that she was reasonably sure would’ve hit that Kirin button as soon as able, and one of those was Karen. Karen clearly didn’t want to interfere with their decision. She was… good, like that.

Karen wasn’t one of the sleeping goddesses. She was Flora… she was the one who rescued Claire from the Tower…

*BANG*

*CRACK*

Her endless repetition was interrupted by the crack of the baseball, and she looked up to see Mahiru jumping up and down, bat hanging limply from her right hand.

“Go, Mahiru!”

“Thanks Hikari-chan! I think I just got lucky though… I was still pretty scared.” Mahiru admits, “I probably set it too fast, I think. Plus, I didn’t really hit it properly. If this was actually baseball, I’m pretty sure that would just be a foul.”

“Have you ever played softball or baseball before?”

“Well, no… I was focused on the baton…”

“Then you’re doing okay.” She tries to give her a comforting smile.

“Well, yeah, but I’ve always loved baseball. Plus, with all that, you know, stuff… That was my Stage of Fate, you know?” Mahiru whispered the last part, despite the fact that they were pretty much alone, “I wanted to see if my ability on the stage translated to here…”

“Well, I can understand that.” Junna was always talking about trying to find a place where she could, well, buy a bow and then practice, but they were so busy with preparing for the festival that she didn’t actually go. Unfortunately, she couldn’t test out her own skills that much. Unless Hikari found herself bit by some sort of radioactive spider.

Well, considering what they were talking about, wouldn’t it be a magic spider?

“Well, maybe in those, you know, places in Mitakihara Town.” She focused again on the machine, but her face wasn’t as determined as it was last time, so when the machine went, her swing was far too late, “The, you know, the place with the… you know what.”

“They looked pretty interesting. Unbelievable, almost.” She stared at the loose baseball, rolling around the bottom of the screen. Even after her Stage of Fate, with the endless pink sand and collapsed Tokyo Tower in the background, she couldn’t get her brain to believe in Walpurgisnacht.

Even after the countless stars she stacked together, to reach the two Stars… To get that eternal wish, to restore Claire’s memories...

“Witches… they seem really sad, don’t they?” She goes back to staring at the pitching machine, but her stance is noticeably distracted, “Being a teenager is hard enough as it is, you know? Dealing with all of these new feelings, all the while going to school… Maybe even finding out you’re, you know, not normal…” Mahiru blushes, no doubt thinking of Karen, “But then, but then, they become a horrible monster if they have a single, really bad day!?”

“It’s awful.” She fumes at the thought of her own young adulthood, artificially limited by her emotions. She’d long be dead, even before meeting the Giraffe…

Wait… that did remind her of something...

“Did you know that I had my ‘Shine’ stolen?” She said conversationally, as though she were speaking about the weather, “Back in London, I mean.”

“R-Really?” She gaped at her, “What happened!?”

What did happen? She was so sure of herself, so ready to fulfill her promise to Flora… without realizing that everyone else had similar desires too. All of them had promises to fulfill, or desires to reach. She was far too prideful, and she was struck down at the last moment by the most brilliant of them all. Judy truly deserved to win, and she truly deserved to be stuck in the Tower for the rest of eternity.

“I was beaten.” She says slowly, fighting to keep her attention in reality,  “Judy took our Shine, to create her Stage of Fate. Though I don’t think she knew what really happened to all of us.” Judy wasn’t a bad person, after all. In fact, despite her leading role, she was quite kind to everyone, even the stage hands. Was she sworn to secrecy by Kirin? Perhaps.

“So what did not having Shine feel like?” Mahiru had abandoned the bat entirely, and stepped out of the way of the machine, “U-Um, if that’s not too personal or anything…”

“I brought it up.” She tries to give a comforting smile, “I forgot how important Karen was. To me, to my dreams of becoming a Stage Girl. When I didn’t have that, I had no reason for being on stage.”

It made her feel… empty. Too empty.

“That sounds a lot like what happened to Karen-chan… when you were gone.” She moves a little closer to her, moving behind the netting protecting her from the pitches, “Before she started translating The Starlight Gatherer. She almost got cut, she was so distracted and confused… It really hurt. All of us couldn’t stand to see her like that.”

This is entirely the reason why she can’t let Karen feel guilty about taking so long to translate. Taking so long to find her. She would never let her feel guilty about that, ever. Because it was her fault to begin with. It was her fault that she couldn’t see the way past Kirin’s rules, that she couldn’t see past the Small and Large Star, her Eternal Wish. Just as she was worn down day by day like the stars she used as her Tower, Karen was also worn down.

But… Karen doesn’t let her feel guilty either. That was the agreement, and she would honor that agreement.

“But I wasn’t in danger of dying, unlike those girls.” She watches the pitching machine as it begins to stir up again, ready to pitch to no one.

“I’m still really scared… but those girls are scared too. If Kirin really thinks we can help, I want to try.” Mahiru breathes out slowly, “But… I want to practice more first. Just in case! There might be a baseball Witch, right?”

“And I’ll be here to cheer you on.” She tilts her head to look at Mahiru, and smiles.

“Okay! Let’s do it! It’s time for your reckoning, baseball pitch machine!” Detaching from her, Mahiru pretends to lift up her sleeves and tilts her head to and fro, psyching herself up to face her dastardly foe. As Mahiru sets herself up for the oncoming onslaught of baseballs, she thinks back to the play they saw. To the information they obtained.

Who was it that tried obtaining the two Stars? Who was it that fell from the tower, blinded by the light?

If Homura was the one stuck in the Tower, doomed to stay there until eternity… Who was Flora?

Madoka?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: giraffes and humans have the same number of bones in their neck!
> 
> Also fun fact: Kaoruko is fun to write
> 
> This was originally one chapter, but it got too long OH WELL. Just me pancaking for 9000 words or something. It might take a while to get ch. 4 out, because at that point is when it crosses over with Madoka, and I really need to re-watch it to make sure I have it all on lock... but it makes me too sad so binging it is p. much impossible lmao.

**Author's Note:**

> Relevant dates, so far:  
> 100th Seishou Spring Festival - March 29th, 2018  
> Celebration Party - March 30th, 2018  
> Walpurgisnacht arrival - April 30th, 2018
> 
> Also, how am I the first one to tag Mr. Giraffe? Poor Kirin-kun, always getting the sweaty end of the lollipop :(


End file.
